


Collection of original and fanfic one shots

by butler451



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cousins, Drowning, Family, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Italy, One Shot Collection, Prequel, Slice of Life, Snippets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 22:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11366592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butler451/pseuds/butler451
Summary: honestly this is just a place to post my drabbles and writing exercises, I'll be surprised if anyone bothers to read this.





	Collection of original and fanfic one shots

I almost died when I was younger. I was only about six or seven, I cant quite remember which, but I still think about it sometimes. I get a flash of anxiousness, a sense of needing to breathe, and not being able to. It keeps me up sometimes, remembering the water swirling around me, bubbles of air escaping from my lungs. I was so sure I would die, alone and struggling in the rapids. 

Our whole extended family had gone to Italy on holiday, and since it was in the middle of a heatwave, we spent most of our time in the rivers up in the mountains. There was this one river in particular that we always went to, it had smooth, round pebbles instead of sand, and there was a huge rock that was just perfect for sunbathing on the edge of the water.  
The only downsides were the rapids. 

You see, if you went just a tad further down the river, the water became deeper, more dangerous. The water flowed faster, and the pull of the currants were too strong for even an adult to withstand, let alone a child.

“Stay away from that part of the river, it’s dangerous” my Mom would tell my cousin and I, “yes Mommy” I replied, the both of us rolling our eyes at her need to impart what we saw as unnecessary advice. 

We never really paid her much attention anyway, we would disregard her words before she had even finished saying them. Instead we would hop across this little path of rocks that stretched across the river, all the way down to the forest on the other side. The problem was that there were two rocks close to the end of the path just slightly further apart than all the others, almost too far for us to jump across. but we made it across every time, and so we thought we were invincible. 

We would splash about in the shallow part of the river until we grew bored, and then we were off. hopping across the little pathway of stones, slipping and sliding and almost-but-not-quite falling in.  
Then we would play in the forest, dart in and out amongst the trees, acting like we were in a fairy tale, two princesses lost in the woods. eventually it would become to hot for us to bear, and so we would run and jump our way back to the adults.

It was so hot that the adults were barely able to move from where they lay in the water, so overcome by heat that only my cousin and I had the energy to gallop about, playing and splashing and generally acting like hyperactive little kids. Everything was fun, nothing was too dangerous to be tried, and we were on a seemingly never ending adventure. 

We would hop across the river, my cousin Valerie in front of me, leading the way as she always did. “Bossy-boots!” I used to yell at her, it was the worst insult I could think of at the time, and it seemed to fit her so perfectly. “Slowpoke!” she would respond. Always leading me around, speaking for me and telling me what to do. I loved her for it though, I was always too quiet to be heard, too scared to take the lead, so she did it for me.

She did it for me that day too. The river was shining in the glaring sun, and the scent of the mountains was in the air, dry and almost acrid due to the heat. We had been making the jump over to the last rock, the one which was just that bit further away. She made her jump, arcing over the water like a flailing gazelle, and landed safely, stumbling slightly, but overall a perfect landing. Valerie was taller than me back then, maybe that’s why she made it, but I was shorter, younger, I leaped, fully expecting to land on the same rock as she had. 

I didn’t. 

My feet hit the side of the rock at an angle, the grin on my face transforming into a look of shock, and even as I scrabbled for purchase on thin air, I fell. I hit my head as I went down, not badly, I doubt I was even bleeding, but it still disoriented me enough that as the cool shock of water hit me, as I submerged fully, I lost track of where I was. I could feel the strong pull of the rapids trying to drag me away, and I immediately tried to grab on to the rocks, to swim up towards the surface, but I couldn't tell where up was. I had no idea which way to swim, where to reach for safety. 

I panicked, gulping in water instead of air, aching for breath. I thrashed frantically, trying to gain any semblance of where I was. I began to drift away, fingers scrabbling along the rocks, I barely even knew what was going on. I don't remember being pulled out of the water, I only remember the utter relief of my cousin kneeling over me, having heaved me out of the water and dragged me to She could have died trying to rescue me, she could’ve overextended herself, and fallen in beside me. She might’ve slipped and hit her head on a rock. None of the adults would've gotten there in time, if Valerie had so much as hesitated for a split second, I would've been dead.  
The rapids would have pulled me away, i’d have been bashed against a few rocks, and they’d have eventually found my waterlogged corpse at the end of the stream.

But she didn’t hesitate, she went into action immediately, not even stopping to think of her own safety, concerned only with saving her annoying little cousin. Because of her selflessness, she saved me, gave me a chance to grow up. 

To be happy, to be sad, to experience fear and anger, kindness and love.

She gave me the chance to live.


End file.
